


Sufficiently Advanced Crystal Orbs

by schneefink



Category: Steerswoman Series - Rosemary Kirstein
Genre: Gen, surprise crossover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-07
Updated: 2016-01-07
Packaged: 2018-05-12 10:23:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5662840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/schneefink/pseuds/schneefink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Willam opens a wizard's chest and finds something unexpected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sufficiently Advanced Crystal Orbs

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nenya_kanadka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nenya_kanadka/gifts).



> Just a bit of fun.

Willam watched the chest. A wizard's man, one of Olin's, had given it to captain Gregori in Alemeth and told him to get it to Donner, and from there to send it on to Wulfshaven and up the Wulf. It would have been suspicious to refuse. There was no reason to refuse: the chest was most likely harmless while closed, and there was no reason for Olin to target the _Graceful Days_. Willam should just ignore the box until they could get rid of it in Donner.

He'd planned to do just that, but then he'd made the mistake of taking a closer look. He recognized the encryption on the lock: it was a simple one, and it would be easy for him to break it. He could open the chest, see what was inside, and with a little luck he could close it again afterwards and nobody would ever know what had happened.

Maybe nothing important was inside. Maybe it was just some spare parts, some notes, or a joke Olin was playing on Isara. Maybe Isara would notice that someone had opened the chest and Willam would have risked his cover, and the crew, for nothing.

Or maybe it was something important. Maybe Olin had become scared by what had happened to Jannik. Maybe there was something in the chest that could help them, something that could lead Rowan and Bel to Slado or help them figure out what it was that Kieran had discovered.

With sudden resolve Willam went to work. It felt like a long time since he'd last handled magic, but his hands were steady, and it didn't take him long to break the lock. He lifted the lid and looked inside.

The chest was full of straw, and inside the straw was one device. No notes or explanation, just an orb with a big screen and a few buttons. Willam took it out carefully and turned it over in his hands. It didn't weigh much. He hadn't seen at anything like it when he'd been with Corvus: even the material felt strange, even smoother than most wizards' devices. The buttons weren't marked in any way.

It was risky. It was probably stupid. Willam pressed a button.

The screen flashed bright silver and the orb started to hum. Willam almost dropped it. Too late he remembered that if the device was powerful enough the Guidestars would be able to detect it even from orbit. The orb was small, but that didn't necessarily mean much.

"Hello? Who is this?" a voice came from the orb. 

For a moment, Willam panicked. The voice didn't sound like any of the wizards' that he knew; that only left Slado. Willam looked around quickly, thoughts racing. Could Slado trace the device? Could Willam shut it off in time? He quickly pressed the other buttons, but nothing happened except that the screen became brighter. Could Slado see him? 

"Look, I'm a very busy man," the voice said, clearly irritated. "Do you need help or are you just playing around?" 

Slado couldn't see him, but he knew someone was there. If Slado thought that Willam was just a curious sailor who'd gotten lucky, that Olin hadn't closed the chest properly, he might think he was harmless. They'd never met, Slado probably wouldn't recognize him. Maybe he'd be curious, maybe he'd send someone to catch Willam in Donner and leave the rest of the crew alone, instead of just sinking the ship.

"Are you a wizard?" Willam asked, as if he didn't know exactly who Slado was.

"Of course I'm not a wizard," the voice said. "Wizards don't exist. Magic doesn't exist."

Willam was so surprised he almost forgot to answer. Not a wizard. Not Slado? Maybe the device connected to some other station, a forgotten one. Or it connected to another device that a random person had found. If it wasn't Slado, he still had a chance.

"Of course magic exists," he said automatically. "I'm using magic to talk to you right now."

"That's not magic, that's technology," the voice said scornfully. "And the visual on this thing is broken, it must be ancient."

"That's just a different name," said Willam. 

"No it's not, it's very different. People are afraid of magic, but technology they can understand."

Willam thought about Rowan, about her reactions when he'd started to teach her magic. "It's just the same as mathematics," she'd said at one point, absent-mindedly. She'd been even faster picking things up afterwards. He hadn't thought much about it, he'd been so impressed with how fast she understood.

"There!" the voice said, sounding pleased. "C'mon, where are you?"

Willam had pointed the screen toward the ground so Slado couldn't see him. Now he turned the device again. The screen showed an old man with grey hair and a sharp face. "Who are you?" Willam asked.

"I'm the Doctor," the man said. "Who are you?"

"W- I'm Attise," Willam said. A doctor? How did a doctor get access to a device like that?

"Nice to meet you. Which planet are you on?"

"Planet?"

"Yes, planet. Round, goes around the sun… Or are you on a ship?"

"I'm on a ship, yes."

"A ship in the water?" 

"Yes," Willam said slowly. "Are there… how many planets are there?"

"Oh, billions," the Doctor said casually. 

Willam stared at him. He couldn't imagine a billion of anything, the number was too huge. Billions of _planets?_

"Do they all have people on them?" 

"Not all of them, but many. You're human, right? Humans and aliens, on millions of planets all around the galaxy. And then there are some who are on a spaceship, like me."

Willam felt dizzy. It was almost like he had the first time Corvus had shown him the view from the Guidestar: he was seeing something too big for him to comprehend, something that threatened to overwhelm him. 

He wished Rowan was here. Maybe Rowan would understand what the Doctor was talking about.

Oddly, the thought strengthened him. He might not understand what the Doctor was saying, but he had to try to get as many details as possible so Rowan could help him try to make sense of them later.

"What is a spaceship?"

"A ship that flies between stars."

Between stars. Willam tried to imagine it and couldn't.

An alarm sounded. Willam jerked back. The Doctor cursed and disappeared from view for a moment, then came back. 

"Look, I'm busy," he said. "Did you need anything? Are you in danger?"

Willam hesitated.

"Are you in danger right now?" the Doctor specified.

"No," Willam said. At least he thought he wasn't. A wizard might have detected the device, but they might not have, especially because it didn't connect to the wizards' network. 

It connected to someone on a ship that flew between the stars. 

From the screen came a screeching noise, and the image flickered. "Great! I have to go," the Doctor said quickly, and the screen went dark. A moment later the device shut off.

Willam stared at it for a long time.

"Attise?" someone called and opened the door. "What are you…" 

Willam looked up as Enid trailed off. The wizard's chest was open and he was still holding the orb: it was clear what he'd done.

"We have to go to the Archives," he said urgently. He stood up. "Maybe Rowan will be there", though when he'd last heard from her, months ago, she'd still been near The Crags, "or I'll tell the other steerswomen. It's important."

Enid stared at him. "It better be," she said.

Willam winced. He had a feeling she knew exactly how easily it could have gone wrong. "It is, I promise," he said earnestly. "This is… I don't know what this is. I don't understand it. But it's important, I know it is." 

"All right," Enid said eventually. "I'll tell the captain."

"Thank you," Willam said. Enid left and Willam sat down again. His finger hovered over the first button, but he didn't push it: the Doctor was probably still busy. He'd try again tomorrow. Maybe he should wait until he was at the Archives, in case the device could run out of energy. 

Billions of planets. Ships flying between the stars. The Doctor had said there was no magic, only technology, but to Willam it sounded like the greatest magic he'd ever heard of.

He could hardly wait to learn more about it.


End file.
